REALLY long overdue post-Christmas 2010

Ok, I'm trying to catch up on all the blog posts I didn't do. I know this is way out of sequence, but I still wanted to post. I will attempt to catch up to present day.

No, we didn’t open presents. We had something better! We had BACON! Ok, obviously I was not thrilled to eat this (and I didn’t eat it), but Jeff and Mike were stoked to eat bacon for Christmas morning breakfast (bacon is different here, and hard to cook to make it taste like bacon from the States). We invited Mike and Danie over for Christmas morning dinner. Danie wasn’t able to make it because only 3 days earlier she had to fly home because her mom was placed on a ventilator and in ICU and was not doing very well. So, it was just Mike and us for Christmas morning breakfast burritos. After gorging ourselves on breakfast we headed to church. We were informed the week earlier in church that we should bring a present that we would like to give away, but it had to be a gift that we either knew someone would want or we would want ourselves. Mike gave away some sweet shoes that looked like Converse shoes he had recently bought. We gave a big bag of maize (which you make nsima from) and sugar. We placed all our gifts on a table in front of the church and we were placed in groups. We were given gift bags and told to fill them with 2 items. By the time we got to the front there were clothes and money left. We chose the clothes. Then, pastor Sean said we should give the items to someone who is overlooked, isn’t thinking about celebrating the risen Savior, and is working on Christmas day. My partner said she was going to give the clothes to someone in her neighborhood that she knew needed the clothes, and was working that day. Jeff and Mike were not sure who they were going to give their items to. We paired up with 2 guys, one that’s an ABC student, and one that’s attending the Assemblies of God College. The guys wanted to take their items to the construction workers that were close to the church. When we approached them the guys (speaking Chichewa of course) asked the worker if he knew what today was. He said in a non-enthusiastic voice that it was Christmas day. The guys went on to explain that it wasn’t JUST Christmas day, but it was the day the Savior of the universe was born and came to rescue us from our sins. After a few minutes of explaining this, and giving the gifts (a shirt and some money, and of course an invite to Flood Church) we prayed with the guy and wished him a Merry Christmas.

            Next we had to give Mike and Jeff’s gifts. We drove near the ABC campus where some shepherd boys were taking care of about 50 goats. We gave them what we had brought for them (2 shirts and some money) and the Malawians we were with asked them if they’d ever heard the story of Jesus’ birth. They said they had, and the guys asked them if they knew that the shepherds were the first to hear about Jesus’ birth. They said they had. It was neat being around actual shepherd kids on Christmas day. I can only imagine, and wish I was a fly on a….well, piece of livestock at the moment the angels were proclaiming Christ’s birth!

After that cool interaction we went home and started preparing dinner. We had Chris, Jenn, Mike, and Jeff and me for our “family” Christmas dinner. Even though we didn’t have a lot of the traditional foods we all eat, we still had some tasty things to eat. For dessert? Peach cobbler of course! That was a treat since peaches weren’t anywhere to be found around Lilongwe at Christmas time. I had bought peaches a month before and froze them to make the cobbler. After that we all gathered around the projector and watched Chevy Chases’ Christmas Vacation. It’s just not the holiday season until you watch a few of these classic movies, and that one is definitely on our list. Jeff had downloaded it from iTunes, which of course took 3 days to fully download. We also did a drive by to Crisis Nursery. It was great getting to see the kids on Christmas. The kids had received presents from someone or an organization earlier in the day because there were new toys all over the place.

All in all it was a great Christmas. We all missed our families terribly, but we still made the most and best of Christmas.

School Starts Soon!

Students return to campus on August 22 and classes start on August 24. Over the next week I will be preparing my Philosophy of Education course as well as an outline for PE courses. I could use much prayer as I prepare these courses. Along with preparing courses, I will be working on getting the sports facilities fixed for the upcoming semester (repairing backboards, fixing the gym floor, doing inventory of equipment). One of the things I am most excited about though is working with Cosmas Phiri, a 2011 ABC graduate and sports intern for this school year, to revive sports outreach through ABC. We are working with government high schools to come in once a week to train the sports teams and share the gospel with the athletes. The headmasters (principals) have been very receptive so far which we praise God for! Can you imagine in the States going to a public high school and saying you want to partner in sports (which would be okay) and then tell them you want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ also? I was ready for the headmasters to decline when we talked about sharing our faith but that seemed to make it an even better reason for them to partner! Praise God!

New ABC Athletics logo on jerseys. Thanks Josh Deerinwater!

Miss Limbe is an ABC graduate and Grambling State graduate (Masters and PhD). She is an Education professor. She also lived in the Great State of Texas for 3 years.

Chisomo Idea - One of the sports ministries we will partner with. They have a girls soccer team that is developing!

Please pray for this upcoming semester and year that God would work in the students’ lives and spur them on to glorify His name! Pray that sports would be more than a game but would be used to evangelize and disciple! Pray for the staff as we seek to be Godly examples and teach truth!

Thank you for your continued support as we move into our second year in Malawi! We love you all with the love of Christ!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Summer Recap

The summer break has been tremendous. Here is a short summary of some of the activities:

July 1-8 – We had a team of 14 from Faith Baptist come and visit and do ministry with us. It was a very encouraging and rewarding time for us and we pray it was for them as well. We visited a few different ministries and they were really excited about working with Kellen and Becca Hiroto and the ministry they oversee, Bright Vision. It was great getting to visit with friends from Wichita Falls and show them what we do in Malawi! We pray for a continued partnership and people to continually come back and visit! There were too many highlights to name all of them, but I will mention one. We went to the prison (because of the fuel shortage we were not able to go on a mobile clinic) the last full day the group was here. On the men’s side Josh preached the gospel boldly to a group of maybe 75. He painted a beautiful picture of how Jesus is the only way to be truly free and He died and rose for each one of us. When he finished, about 20 men prayed to receive Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and it was a truly amazing time! What a joy to serve a living God who cares about those in prison in Lilongwe, Malawi!

Carson’s mom, Kelley, was here from May 6-July 10 and it was a wonderful getting to spend so much time with her. She loved on some of the babies we were taking care of from Crisis Nursery, did some mobile clinics with Carson, made some yummy salads, and a million other things while she was here. It was good to spend time with her and let her get a glimpse of what we do at ABC.

Jeff’s dad, Greg, was here from July 13-August 8. We were somewhat limited in our traveling because of a current fuel crisis. It was great getting to see him and spend so much time just hanging out. We went to the prison to watch a soccer match and share the gospel, went to a village and stayed the night and Jeff preached in the church on Sunday, and of course he loved on babies from Crisis Nursery! He was also able to meet the student that he sponsored last year and that was a great experience.

With all of our visitors we received tons of gifts/goodies that are not necessities but very nice to have! If you helped get those things, we really appreciate it! We have enjoyed having goodies from the States very much and our friends here are also very thankful as we share with them (since we are spoiled and you guys sent us so much)! We are also grateful for all the gifts for the ministries we do here. We got new soccer uniforms and balls, 21 new Christian Education books for the College library (which is an area that is desperately lacking), and new volleyballs and basketballs! We also received handmade quilts for Crisis Nursery. And the list goes on and on of all the things that were sent with the team from Faith and our parents. We are truly grateful and humbled by your response to our wants/needs!

We love you all!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff and Carson

End of School

School, both College and Academy, has been extra crazy over the past month. From banquets to graduations and everything in between, I did not have much time to relax and update on everything going on. Here is a blog about the last month of school.

For the College there were many things that happened since mid May. The senior baccalaureate service was the last Sunday of May. It is a worship service to honor the graduates and praise God for an amazing four years. The college students in the music department put on an end of the year concert that was truly amazing. There are a few videos on our Youtube page (http://www.youtube.com/user/jeffandcarson) of songs from the concert. They are simply amazing and the music is beautiful! The night after the concert we had the senior banquet. It is put on at the Capital Hotel and is a very nice dinner and time of sharing about the four years. About half of the seniors shared about God’s faithfulness to them throughout their experience of ABC. We really enjoyed hearing the Christ-centeredness of many of the students. College graduation was June 4 and was one of the best experiences of the year. Our gym was packed with family and friends of the 43 graduates. A representative from the US Embassy spoke as well as 2 representatives from the Malawi Ministry of Education. It was nice to have distinguished guests at such a special occasion. A pastor from a Presbyterian Church in Mississippi was our keynote speaker and did a phenomenal job of charging the students to stay Christ-centered in everything they do because education without Christ does not change the world! As the students received their diplomas the atmosphere was electric! Cheering and shouting and just a great time! Graduation was a picture of why I do what I do. God has sent me to be a professor and teacher to disciple and teach students to have a biblical worldview and to leave and change the world! Many of the students are going to do just that and it spurs me on to continue doing what God has called me to do.

A boat trip during the Senior Trip to Lake Malawi National Park

Seniors 2011!!! Lake Malawi National Park 

4 Senior Men - (L to R)Titu, Blessings, me, Ben, Leonard

Cosmas in the middle with his mom and uncle. Cos is a 2011 graduate and will be a Sports Intern for ABC.

Me in my graduation garb. That (crazy) lady behind me is Michelle Halemeier, the volleyball coach.

Shonduri on the right was the 2011 valedictorian!

Charles one of the 2011 graduates. This is right after the grad ceremony.

The Academy just came to a close on June 15. It was a great year of learning how to teach and relying on the Lord to really work through me. I learned a lot through teaching middle school students and am thankful for the experience. One of the highest honors was being asked by the administration to be the keynote speaker at the Academy graduation. We had 5 graduation seniors (largest graduation class so far from ABCCA). The valedictorian gave a phenomenal speech about keeping Christ first and not straying off that path and I spoke about the very same thing! I used Philippians 3:1-11 with 1:21 as a conclusion about keeping the heart that everything is for the Lord. God wove our 2 speeches together beautifully to make graduation more of worship to God than anything else!

The group from Faith Baptist arrives 2 weeks from today and we are super excited about showing them around Malawi and the various things that are happening here. We thank God for everyone who supports us in various ways and are grateful that God has woven everything together for His glory and our joy! Praise God for His faithfulness to those who love Him and call on His name!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Its May! Crazy Busy in School Life!

Things have been EXTREMELY busy lately. Once we came off Easter Break things have not slowed down. Carson’s mom arrived May 6 around noon and that night we had the Junior/Senior Banquet for the College students. The Juniors did an amazing job putting on the banquet for the Seniors. The next morning we had Super Saturday. This is a day of competition among the four classes and in theory, the staff has a team. I ran the 100 meter dash (forward and backward). Yes I can hear all of you laughing about how slow I am. I did win the longest goal kick which did not require running. I participated in the high jump since I had so much experience from my junior high days.

It was a great day that ended with a braii (African cookout) and the eating of smores around bonfires! The Seniors won the whole competition.

We are now looking forward to the Senior Trip to Lake Malawi this coming Friday-Sunday, May 20-22. It will basically be like going to summer camp for a few days. The Seniors are super excited as well as Carson and me.

Here is a link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NHikBwCpKs&feature=channel_video_title) to about 3 minutes of video (it is raw footage) for the Good News Club outreach I do with the College students on Thursdays. This coming Thursday is the last day for outreach for this school year.

As I posted earlier, I will be taking over College athletics in July. If you want to be a part of that please email or Facebook me. There are some things happening in Wichita Falls of collecting sports equipment and stuff to send us. We will focus on a few things this coming year including reaching out with the gospel of Christ through sports!

Thank you for praying for us and loving us! Specific prayer requests are a good end to this school year (3 weeks of College and 5 weeks of Academy) and preparations for summer teams coming to go smoothly.

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

1 Year B-Day catch up post #4

OK, It’s no surprise that Shaddy and Meesh are our favorites at Crisis. Their birthday was December 22, so we decided to throw them a mini birthday party. We made brownies and brought crates of drinks for the mommies that staff the nursery. We let the kids have some of the brownies as well, and it was a disaster. The kids, I guess, had never had something that sweet before, and the moment Caroline (one of the mommies) sat on the floor and tried to hand each kid a small brownie, they swarmed her and the plate of brownies was all over the floor! We also brought balloons, but most of the kids were afraid of them. Kondwani (one of the older kids) ran away from me, terrified of the balloons. Of course it was entertaining so I chased him around the nursery with the balloon. Meesh had fun trying to bite the balloons and after the first two popped I decided he didn’t need to be playing with the balloons anymore.

We were able to sing happy birthday to Shaddy and Meesh, and we got to Skype with my mom and sister for a bit. They also sang them happy birthday. It was fun to get to celebrate their one-year birthday, because birthdays are not celebrated very much at Crisis. It is very busy and stressful for the mommies, and there are more than 20 kids there, so it’s hard to remember EVERY single child’s birthday. That’s why I’m glad that we were able to provide a tiny birthday party for them. It’s fun for the kids, but also fun for the mommies. After we got back from the party I was looking through my pictures of Shaddy and Meesh when we first arrived in Malawi. They looked tiny compared to their one–year-old pictures. I think it’s neat how fast children grow and change, and I don’t think I realized how much Shaddy and Meesh had grown until I saw the pictures from July.

Anyway, Shaddy and Meesh have recently gone to a foster home (late Feb is when they were placed in the foster home). The foster family goes to church at IBF which is on the ABC campus. I have not seen the boys since they’ve been placed, but I hear they are thriving and doing well. While Jeff and I miss them terribly, we know they are in a great home being loved on and raised in a Christian environment. And now we’re extra happy we took pictures of them when we got here up until now, because we can share those pictures with the family. So when the boys grow up they will be able to have pictures of themselves when they were younger!

Happy Birthday Shaddy and Meesh!

It’s ALL About Jesus,

Carson

Birthday boys!

I like Shaddy's sweet smile in this one!

Whoah, surprised Shaddy in this picture!

This was the "attack of the kids" moment...notice Meesh reaching in for more brownies

This picture was taken when Shaddy and Meesh came to stay with us for a weekend because both of them had really high fevers. Amazing what Tylenol and Ibuprofen syrup do around the clock. We had them playing and splashing in the tub in no time!

Shaddy had figured out how to splash himself in the face...

splash wars!

the plastic bottle was more interesting than any of the toys we had for them to play with

oh, Jeff's hat was more interesting than the bottle

sleep-drunk Shaddy

random day at crisis

Shaddy's Mr. T hairstyle is in full swing in this picture!

Esime-catch up post #3

In early December Crisis nursery had received another baby from a family about an hour from Lilongwe. The baby was tiny (2kg or 4.4lbs), and the 7^th born in the family. The mother died from post partum hemorrhage (a VERY common thing in Malawi) and the father was too overwhelmed/couldn’t care for this baby as well as the 5 others at home (the 6^th born died from HIV complications at 2 years of age). Upon receiving the child at Crisis, the director (Mwawi) called me to come get Esime. She was very concerned because Esime had a rattly chest and was breathing very rapidly, as well as being malnourished. I brought her to Tiyamike (our children’s ward) and Dr. Young assessed her. She was placed on strict feeds and antibiotic injections. Esime thrived and grew very quickly. She was only at our ward for about 2 weeks, which looking back on it now was incredible. These kids that are brought to our ward are simply amazing. Becky, Dr. Young and I always say how astounding it is that these kids can thrive when all the odds are against them. It’s moments like these that remind me of how powerful God is, and how there’s no earthly explanation of why these kids thrive. It is simply the work of Christ. That is why I really like our motto at the clinic, “We Treat, God Heals”. It couldn’t be more evident than in these kids. I’ll be posting a recent picture of Esime soon, you won’t believe how big she is now!

It’s ALL about Jesus,

-Carson-

Gosh, she's just huge, isn't she? NOT! 

TINY!

I think she was tired of me taking pictures at this point

I think she's saying, "enough already!"

Zikomo-giving

Zikomo is thanks in Chichewa. Actually, zikomo can mean a lot of other things as well, but it’s the word used for thank you. Anyway, this Thanksgiving was fun, different, and memorable. We had most of the “normal” American foods. We even had sweet potato casserole (my favorite!). Initially I was kinda bummed because I wanted sweet potato casserole, but sweet potatoes weren’t in season during Thanksgiving. BUT momma Dehnert is smart and put some sweet potatoes in her freezer to have to make sweet potato casserole to share with everyone for Thanksgiving. Turkey, dressing, veggies etc were all served. Of course, there was pie. Lots and lots of desserts were available, and the most coveted dessert was the pumpkin pie Becca Hiroto made. When it was time to serve dessert everyone rushed to the table to get a small slice of her pumpkin pie. Becca was smart and had some pumpkin puree from the States shipped, so the pie was not only good, it tasted like home. I tried to make pecan pie with the pecans the Franklin’s sent us, but I didn’t have corn starch, so I kind of made pecan pie/pecan mush. Either way, it was tasty and it too tasted like home.

Also, Chisomo had been improving so well he was able to attend Thanksgiving dinner! Becky and her family are fostering to adopt him (after all the crazy paperwork goes through) so below are some of the pictures of him. He looked 10 times better than when we had rescued him only 2 weeks prior to that! He was the center of attention, and he loved every minute of it!

So this is my catch-up post #2.  I hope to be caught up to present day soon!

Carson

Yes, I was a LITTLE over enthusiastic about the sweet potato casserole. Thanks momma Dehnert!

Chisomo and Jeff at Thanksgiving dinner

He is such a ham!

Chisomo playing with Becca and Kellen

I couldn't post this picture in my last post because the internet was too slow to upload the picture, BUT this is the picture of the things the lady heaved up. The rock was not in that paper we just placed it in there for the picture. But the note was ripped up, and that is the red string that was tied around the woman's abdomen.

Fuel Shortage

Since last Saturday, April 2, there has been a fuel shortage in Malawi. Friday I got out of school at 1:10 and went to sit in a line of cars waiting for fuel. The tanker had not actually dropped the fuel off yet because the tanker was not in Lilongwe. I waited about 2 hours before the tanker arrived with the fuel. Once the line started moving I was thinking it would not take very long. I was wrong! Once I got close to the front, I realized they were letting people with all types of bottles and cans get in line to get fuel as well. As far a I know that is actually illegal in Malawi when there is a fuel shortage. Then they were letting cars in 2 different entrances which created an even bigger problem with traffic flow. I finally got to the front and heard they were only allowing people to fill up with 5,000 kwacha (about $30) worth of fuel but we were on empty and needed about 10,000 kwacha. I started talking to the manager about 3 cars from the pump and asked him how much I could have. He asked how much I needed so I told him, “10,000K.” He talked to me until it was my turn and filled me up! I took a few books to read while waiting and I am glad I did because I sat in line from 1:30-6:10. I was actually never frustrated or mad because I went in thankful that fuel was even available. Pray that the fuel problem ends soon as it is still not readily available!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Singanga

I know it’s been QUITE a long time since I have posted. I sure hope everyone had a great holiday season. Believe it or not, the holiday season in Lilongwe was still just as busy. Even though we didn’t have the constant commercialized reminders that it was Christmas time, we were still just as busy. So, I figured I’d post the latest happenings one post at a time until I catch up to current day.

On Monday, November 29^th it was a normal Monday at the clinic. About 7:45 am a woman arrives with her husband. Her husband said his wife woke up in the night unable to move her legs. I immediately thought, “oh great, drama before 8am.” We get her to lay on the bed and when we ask what’s wrong, the woman can’t speak but mouths that her belly hurts and she’s unable to move her legs. We take her vital signs and nothing is abnormal. Dr. Young looks in her mouth and there’s nothing obstructing her throat or anything. We start asking her husband multiple questions and the woman starts heaving violently. Becky and I grab an emesis bucket because she looks like she’s going to puke. After a full minute of the woman heaving, a rock, piece of plastic and piece of paper come out of the woman’s mouth. No mucus, no vomit, no spit, the paper was dry and the rock was about an inch in diameter. We were puzzled. Then the woman was grabbing her stomach so we pulled her shirt up and saw a red piece of cloth tied around the woman’s abdomen. This is a sign that the singanga, or witch doctor, had been to visit her. I opened the piece of paper and it had 3 crosses written on the top. The letter was in Chichewa, but the husband said it was a death note. It was a definite indicator that the witch doctor had come to visit this woman. The husband was spooked and asked if he could take the contents to his church. We wanted to burn them, but he insisted that he take them to the church the couple attends weekly. We allowed them to take them, but not before we got a picture of everything. The husband was asked to gather family members to pray and sing over his wife. People arrived and they sang and prayed. About 2 hours later, the woman was able to walk out of the room on her own two feet with no problems. Weird? Yes. Crazy? Yes. Explanation…Jesus is in control and the devil is very much alive.

            Jeff and I constantly say how much we try to rationalize things like this when in fact they’re complete evidence of how God is in control and the devil is working. Could there be some scientific explanation of why this woman’s airway didn’t close up? I’m sure. But the truth is the devil is alive and working all around the world. We were very scared and spooked by this whole situation. When asking some of the college students around campus about these types of incidences, they all can give some sort of account of an experience they had with a singanga. But if these things were to happen in the States we would blow them off and give some sort of “rational” excuse of why it happened. It’s very interesting to me how much we can “rationalize” situations in the States, but here in Malawi they accredit these incidences to the singanga. I almost feel as if they have it more figured out than we do, like they give God the “credit” more than we do in the States. 

God & Sports

I have some new updates on what the next year will hold for me at ABC. The athletic director (AD) for the College, Derek Breuninger, is returning to the States. He had committed for 2 years and his commitment is done in July, so I will be taking over the sports program in July. Being the AD will involve many things. I will be the head of all PE classes for the College but will not be teaching them all. I will be responsible for finding teachers for all the classes and making sure a syllabus exists for all PE courses. I will also be the head of team sports for the College. Again, I will not be coaching any of the teams, assuming each team has a coach, but will be the coordinator for all the team sports. We currently have 5 team sports: men’s soccer, basketball and volleyball and women’s basketball and netball. Along with being the AD, I will continue teaching Christian education courses in the College and being the coordinator for student sponsorship at the Malawi campus.

I am super excited about this new opportunity and using sports as a tool to share the gospel with many people in Malawi. It is amazing to look back and see how God has prepared me for each thing He calls me to do. I was involved and ran Upward Sports for 5 years at First Baptist and it was a great training for being involved in College sports and PE since it laid the foundation of using sports to reach people for Christ! Also, coaching recreational and competitive soccer teams has helped me understand that sports can be fun and competitive at the same time. I sometimes wondered why I committed to coach the teams I did even when “I didn’t have time.” I now see God pushed me to do those things in order to prepare me for ministry.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me and encouraged me through sports, both playing and coaching. There were many times I was not qualified or messed things up when coaching but the parents and players always supported me! Also, thank you to everyone who never gave up on me during my playing days. It is probably hard for most of the parents and my teammates to believe I am now using sports to share the gospel at a Christian college, but God has mercy and grace and for that I am truly thankful! And a huge thanks to my parents for always doing everything they could to help me be successful in sports but never forcing me to play. It was always enjoyable because I knew my parents would be completely okay with me stopping and pursuing other things.

I pray as this new opportunity arises that God would use it to bring glory to Himself and make His name known among the nations! As it gets closer to time for me to officially take over as AD I will let you know more about what is going on in the world of ABC Sports.

I am truly grateful for the prayers and support of family and friends. I thank God for you!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Sports & Other Happenings

Things have been going well lately. I have started playing some with the men’s volleyball team and really enjoy being around the guys and playing. They are doing quite well and we actually played the Malawi National Team a few weeks ago. It was a great experience since I have never played a national team in any sport. We lost but the first 2 games we kept it close.

Spiritual Formation class is going great as well! Many of the students are telling me they are growing spiritually and learning some new things. The ones that I have talked to seem to be very encouraged in their spiritual lives because of the class so that is super encouraging and exciting for me!

My Academy classes are also going well. We have 11 weeks left of class now (with a 2 week Easter Break in April). It is still exciting being able to share Christ whenever I want with the students. We are studying Ancient Egypt in 6^th grade and we did a contrast paper for Egyptian religion and Christianity. One of the books says that the 3 major monotheistic religions worship the same God so we spent ample time talking about how our God is different from all others (mainly Jesus Christ)!

For the next few weeks things are pretty normal around here as far as I can tell but we are looking forward to the summer when Carson’s mom, my dad and a group from Faith Baptist come to visit!

A few things to pray for are teachers for the Academy for next year (if you are interested in teaching in Malawi let me know), Spiritual Emphasis week at the College to go well, College midterms starting March 21, and continued good health for Carson and I.

Thank you for praying for us and loving us!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

College, Friends & Ministry

A lot has happened over the past month in our ministry. Classes have started at the Academy and the College. The college class has been a huge encouragement to me and the ministry that God has placed me in. I am teaching Spiritual Formation (mainly focused on practical application of the Spiritual Disciplines). It is only offered to sophomores and it is an elective so it is not required. The class limit was set at 50 and we only had 50 books available. The first class I had 53 students so I knew that they were not all registered for the class. The following week I had 60 students. We made a deal with them that they were responsible for borrowing a book and turning in all assignments but they were welcome in the class. So 60 students are taking the class and seem very eager about learning the disciplines of the Christian life and applying them to their lives. We are using Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney if you are interested in pursuing Godliness (1 Tim 4:7) through the spiritual disciplines.

Our visitors, the Long’s, have returned to Wichita Falls and it was great having friends from the States! They took tons of pictures while they were here and some of them will be used in making new brochures for ABC as well as for the College and Academy yearbooks. Things at the Academy are going well also. I am enjoying more and more getting to talk about God in relation to history and having a Christian worldview. I am still learning classroom management and those kinds of things that come with teaching middle school students but by the grace of God I am improving. It is helping me rely on God in everything I do because I do not have all the answers or knowledge.

We went to an orphanage about 2 hours away from Lilongwe where 2 ABC graduates are involved in helping organize an orphanage of about 60 children from babies to high school students. Another ABC graduate is a high school teacher in the same trading center (small town) where the orphanage is located. We are praying about if and how God wants us to be involved there. We also visited a feeding program, nursery school and other various projects called Bright Vision with our friends, Kellen and Becca Hiroto. They have helped sponsor this ministry while training a Malawian (who is originally from the area that Bright Vision works in) to actually run the day-to-day ministry. It is also something we are praying about being involved in and if we do get involved, what that would mean. These would be extra ministries added on to our main focus at ABC. We truly believe that through education and the ministry at the clinic we can have a more broad, long term impact than by any other means. That does not mean we will not be involved with these other things, it just means our main focus is our ministry at ABC.

Thank you for praying for us, loving us and encouraging us in Christ! We appreciate all of you and thank God for you! If you ever have questions please let us know!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Long Overdue!

I am back to blogging. Sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted and kept you updated on our ministry and life in Malawi. We pray that you had a great Christmas and a wonderful start to the New Year. The Christmas break was very relaxing and a much needed break for us. We were able to take a short vacation to Cape Town, South Africa, and see some of the most beautiful places on earth. It was absolutely stunning to drive down to the Cape of Good Hope and see the incredible things that God has created.

The Academy has started back and we finished finals for the first semester January 20-21. I feel much more comfortable planning and teaching this semester. The College starts classes on Wednesday, January 26 and I will be teaching a spiritual formation class which will focus on learning and applying the spiritual disciplines. I am using Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, as the textbook and drawing from many other sources for the class as well. If you do not know much about spiritual disciplines, I would suggest this book for you.

We received some friends, Scott, Beverly, and Raquel Long, on Sunday, January 16. They are staying until February 10. We are excited to have people come serve alongside us and encourage us in our ministry. They have already been a huge blessing to us and many other staff and students on the campus. They are taking tons of pictures so make sure you check out their blog for updates and pictures (http://www.blongphotography.com/). We have a lot of stuff planned for their visit and pray that God would bless their time here. They also brought a lot of stuff from the States for us (thanks to everyone who gave stuff) which is nice on those hard days. Among the things are Starbucks coffee, Hot Tamales, Reese’s Pieces, tons of DVDs, shampoo, conditioner, travel coffee cups, a few college football game recordings and many other things. Thank you, thank you, thank you if you sent stuff! The Hiroto’s also brought us things back as they went to the States for Christmas and a wedding. We are so blessed to have people who are involved in ministry with us!

I plan on updating more often now that school is back in session and there is a routine. If you are interested in coming to visit and minister with us, please let me know. We want people to come and visit and see what is happening through ABC and in Malawi. You are always welcome! Thanks for the love, prayers, support and encouragement! We love you!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Dzaleka in Pictures

Brian Carlisle holding sleeping Samuel. He chatted with these guys for a long time!

Sunga and me

Some of the kids performed for us

Humphreys, Eunice and others dancing

Lifton Square

Can you guess where they're from originally?

Some of the kids that sang for us

Melissa entertaining kids....who'd have thought twirling was so popular? Danie's in the background in the white shirt

These kids were booty dancing, no joke

Lifton teaching us some dance moves

The beautiful Mingoli girls....Linda got cut out of the picture, sorry!

Mingoli performed while we were at Dzaleka. They did a GREAT job!

Praising Jesus congo line style

Mike dancing with the kiddos during the congo line

I caught Larry joining in the congo line

Lifton catching his breath after the congo line!

Mike and this guy were buddies for the day 

I wanted to post some pictures of our day at Dzaleka Refugee camp. We were humbled by the stories of everyone we met. I think each family there could have a book written about them. Their experiences are so humbling, and I can't begin to try and understand how they feel. I want to have faith like the people of this camp. They are true examples of praising Jesus through the storm.

It's all about You, JESUS

Carson